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  • Switzerland: Referendum Aside, Obligations Remain
    Dec 15, 2010
    Switzerland is a country of paradoxes. Rich with humanitarian traditions, home of international human rights bodies and organizations, and numerous global companies, it is also a place where the debate around migration has grown increasingly hard-line.
  • Protect Jewelry Industry from the Taint of Blood Diamonds
    Mar 18, 2010
    If Switzerland wants to play an even greater role in the global and domestic jewelry trade, it should demonstrate more leadership in ending the sale and production of "blood diamonds," gems procured in the context of the most severe human rights abuses.
  • Switzerland: Minaret Ban Violates Rights
    Dec 4, 2009
    The recent vote in Switzerland to ban minaret construction violates the rights of observant Muslims to manifest their religion in public and reflects mounting anti-Muslim sentiment in Western Europe.
  • The Minaret Vote, Europe's Call to Show Bias
    Dec 2, 2009
    The vote on Sunday amending Switzerland’s constitution to ban minaret construction is a sad reflection of growing intolerance toward Muslims in Western Europe.
  • Universal Periodic Review of Switzerland
    May 4, 2008
    Human Rights Watch is concerned about a number of practices which in Switzerland have led to serious instances of human rights violations that erode the implementation of international standards of human rights protection in the country. Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned about the use of “diplomatic assurances” against torture and ill-treatment and the recently adopted Law on Asylum.
  • Reply Letter to the Swiss Government
    Jun 27, 2007
    Human Rights Watch remains extremely concerned about the efforts of the Swiss government to extradite to Turkey a number of Kurds currently resident in Switzerland. A letter from the President of the Swiss Confederation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, suggests that the Swiss government has departed from its previous principled position against reliance on diplomatic assurances against torture and ill-treatment and now seeks to carve out an exception to justify the use of unreliable “no torture” promises specifically in the extradition context.
  • Sri Lanka and Burundi Human Rights Defenders Win 2007 Martin Ennals Award
    May 4, 2007
    Human Rights Watch, as one of the members on the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA), announced the 2007 Laureates.
  • Letter to the Swiss Government Regarding Diplomatic Assurances
    Dec 14, 2006
    I am writing to express Human Rights Watch’s deep concern at reports that the government of Switzerland intends to rely upon diplomatic assurances against torture and other ill-treatment from the government of Turkey to effect pending extraditions of Kurds wanted on terrorism charges in that country.
  • Switzerland: Voters Should Reject Asylum Restrictions
    Sep 22, 2006
    Swiss voters should reject proposed changes to the Swiss law on asylum (“LAsi”) in Sunday’s referendum (September 24) because the measure runs counter to the commitments Switzerland has made under international refugee law, Human Rights Watch said today. Today, Human Rights Watch released a seven-point analysis of the proposed law’s shortcomings as measured against international legal standards for the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
  • Switzerland: Vote to Follow Basic Principles of Refugee Protection
    Sep 22, 2006
    Last December’s modifications to the national asylum law represent a dramatic retreat from the international standards Switzerland accepted when it ratified the Refugee Convention. We are calling on Swiss citizens to consider the following basic principles of refugee protection, due process and fundamental fairness when they vote on the referendum on the Law on Asylum (LAsi).
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